


Logan Actually Ducks

by riddleinacapitalm



Category: Dark Angel
Genre: F/M, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-09
Updated: 2014-12-09
Packaged: 2018-02-27 23:29:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2710622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riddleinacapitalm/pseuds/riddleinacapitalm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lydecker tells him to duck, Logan's seen enough action movies before the Pulse to drop down to the ground without hesitation, a bullet whizzing past him and lodging itself in the man behind him. The bullet doesn't even graze him. Close call.<br/>Everything changes after that.<br/>Starts with Designate This then branches off</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When 452 was assigned to 494 as his breeding partner, he didn't know what to think. He didn't question his orders, but inside he was struggling to think of a reason why 452 would be a part of the breeding program at all. Not only was she and her gang of '09ers responsible for blowing up the lab in the first place, 452 was a flight risk. If she got pregnant she would try to escape again and Manticore would lose two assets instead of just one.

Mostly, he was curious. A little angry at the cards he's been dealt.

He knew as much about the notorious '09ers as any other X5 did, maybe a little less because of the time the twinned units spent in psy-ops afterwards. It was easy to miss out on the gossip when you were being reindoctrinated. The kids just snapped one day and ran off, leaving the rest of them behind to clean up their mess. Reckless and self-centered to the very core, traitors that were the reason why what little freedom they had in Manticore was stripped away.

But his feelings about the '09ers didn't matter. It was in his best interest to keep as far away from 452 as possible, and so far he had been successful. It wouldn't be good as a twin to even acknowledge her existence, and she had been so set on not making eye contact with anyone unless they were fighting that she hadn't noticed. The girl was like a feral animal animal ready to bite any other animal in captivity with her, and the other X5s would do the same to her given the chance. Most of his time in training was spent staying back and watching the others goading her, pressing her buttons, trying to see if she would snap. Sparring had turned from a playful test of skills to a warzone, and every opponent she had was bent on trying to break her down.

And it wasn't working.

No one had won against her yet, not once, and deep down it was starting to bother him. Her moves were sloppy, she spent years out in the world fighting nothing but weakass humans, and still she managed to come out on top against them.

Maybe this was his opportunity to change that.

He tried to school his predatory look into a neutral facial expression as he opened 452's cell door. His eyes zeroed in on her distrusting face, ready for the feral thing to try and bite his head off, but she surprised him as all of the barely contained hostility on her face melted away into a wounded and vulnerable look.

It freaked him out.

"Ben?" She asked, and it really freaked him out.

Time to put his game face on.

He stalked through the room, invading her territory and putting her in her place.  _He_ was king of this jungle, not her. But she was still too relaxed around him, inched closer to him when she should be across the room and snarling. He had to rile her up like the other X5's had done, prove that he wasn't like her.

She kicked him into the door and he hated that it surprised him. This was what he wanted, for her to hate him like she did the others.

He was not a Ben, only humans needed names. His designation was 494 and that was all he needed. He would prove it to her and everyone in this place.

He knew how to follow orders.

* * *

When Lydecker elbows the man behind Logan and tells him to duck, he's seen enough action movies before the Pulse to know what double double crossing looked like. He dropped down to the ground without hesitation, a bullet whizzing past him and lodging itself in the man behind him.

The bullet doesn't even graze him.

Close call.

"Are you crazy? You could have shot me!"

"I told you to duck."

It took less than a minute for Lydecker to drop all of the armed men. Logan made a note to himself never to get on Lydecker's bad side.


	2. Chapter 2

It was almost the hour mark for breeding. If he stayed any longer, a guard would come and check on their status. If 452 was not here in the next ten minutes, they would both be in trouble.

So 494 felt downright giddy as 452 crawled out from underneath her cot and spotted him patiently waiting for her. Oh she was screwed. Not him, just her.

"Forget about our date?" He asked, and he resisted the urge to laugh at the shocked look on her face.

This was turning out better than he had expected. He decided to sit on this information for now, she would never get far past the X7's anyway, might as well let it all play out naturally. Any action on his part would flag him for psy-ops again.

However he was still... curious.

"So why do you want out of here so much?" He asked, "You got a roof over your head, plenty to eat, which is more than you can say for most people out there."

"You think Manticore takes care of you out of the goodness of it's heart? It's using you."

"Nobody's using me." He insisted.

As if he was the chump for staying behind where he belonged. She was the delusional one who thought that being out in that filthy world was the preferred option.

"That's what you don't get. You're working for the  _bad guy._ "

He considered her for a moment. She seriously thought there were good guys in this world? There was something off in her head.

"I'm gonna be out of your cell in five minutes, and you'll be rid of me for the night, okay 452?"

"My name's Max."

"Whatever you say."

Yeah, something was seriously off in her head.

"You should have a name too."

"Well, I told you, my designation's 494."

"Doesn't suit you." He shot her a confused look. He didn't understand the need for anything to suit him. He suited himself just fine, "I'm going to call you Alec." Another confused look, "As in smart alec."

He mulled it over before flashing her a smile, "I can live with that."

"Good." Her tone was calm and peaceful, so he should have known just from the two days he'd been speaking with her that it wasn't going to be friendly. He just didn't expect the attack to be verbal, "Because my second choice was  _dick._ "

Her words caught him off guard just as much as the kick from the other day, but instead of causing him to back off this insult reeled him in instead. She was different around him than everyone else at Manticore whom she faced with thinly veiled hostility, although there was still a bite underneath her smile.

"See you around," In common verbal usage he learned that the promise of another encounter combined with certain tones and facial expressions came off as casual but flirtatious, indicating his piqued interest, "Max."

* * *

Renfro felt a headache coming on. The halfhearted attempt to capture Eyes Only with Lydecker as bait was a bust, and now the two were definitely in cohorts. It was only a matter of time before the cyber vigilante outed their location and she had to get rid of the evidence.

One of her men handed her a medical chart on one of the X series and she smirked. Progeria would be a good introduction to rattle X5-452's nerves, remind her of her mortality before psy-ops had their turn with her to try and determine Eyes Only's location.

Someone was going to get hurt, probably a lot of people actually, it was just up to 452 now to determine who.


	3. Chapter 3

The third time he visits her cell for their nightly trysts, he didn't bother hiding whatever predatory intentions he had on his face. 452 was proving to be an interesting match for him. Not 452,  _Max._ 452 was a selfish traitor who was nothing but trouble. Max was trouble, but only because she was a fire that made something inside him thaw. Not any of that useless emotion crap, they got that out of him ages ago, but for the first time at Manticore he was genuinely interested in what was happening.

He was warned by the guard that night, Otto, that she wasn't exactly feeling so hot. After Renfro snagged her during the day she took a little trip to psy-ops. Probably an interrogation for the location of the other '09ers. He remembered what it felt like, the red light piercing through your eye and being unable to look away, everything in your mind up for grabs unless you locked it up somewhere you couldn't even reach.

The door opens and when he enters she snaps to attention, sitting up in her bed and breathing heavily.

Without his knowledge, the predatory expression he has on his face falls into something he can't control.

"You okay?"

"X5332960073452." She whispered, shaking and looking down at the ground.

He whistled, "They sure did a number on you."

"X5332960073452."

"Yeah, of course you are."

"X5332960073452."

Alec rolled his eyes. Broken wasn't entertaining. Broken was weak.

"Max, snap out of it!"

Max looks at him then, and she doesn't react with fire but with an airy expression, her hands coming up to either side of his face to cup it. That was new.

"Ben?" She smiles at him with emotion he could recognize but not remember.

"Keep mistaking me for him and I'll get an identity complex."

Her smile faltered and the hands that had been exploring his face were snatched back. He smirked.

"Alec."

"In the flesh. I guess they didn't get it out of you yet." He shook his head. If she had reverted to numbers they probably drilled her hard. Good thing she hadn't been messed up permanently. Not that he cared, of course, if anything he wanted her to go soft because it meant interrogation would be easier for Manticore.

"I didn't tell them anything." She insisted, avoiding eye contact with him, and Alec was a little impressed. She just woke up and already she could speak full sentences.

"Nothing but your barcode." She ran a hand through her hair in frustration, "Hey, I get it. We all have our ways of coping with the lightshow." That didn't seem to help her, as the shaking started again.

"I need to get out of here." She decided and sprang up, lifting the cot. Alec didn't know why, it wasn't any of his business, but just as quickly Max lifted the cot Alec slammed it back down.

"You're in no shape to get tangled up with those X7's right now."

"They're just going to keep trying until they get it out of me. I can't let that happen."

"So you'd rather die from some poor execution of a halfassed plan that'll end up with you being put down in the yard like a dog?"

Max was quiet for a moment, and all her energy seemed to leave her.

When Zach was captured, Manticore tried for who knows how long to get the locations of their brothers and sisters. But Zach was strong, Zach made himself forget. He didn't trust her because he though she wasn't strong like him.

Her hand went to her heart.

Max could be strong. Memories of her and Logan together in his penthouse apartment, what could have been, the last kiss they had shared. She would have to forget all of it if she wanted to protect him, because every time Eyes Only was brought up those were what she thought of. But those were the memories that were keeping her going.

She had never been alone in Manticore before. Max wouldn't have even escaped if it weren't for her brothers and sisters dragging her most of the way. She didn't know if she could fight them without her love keeping her strong.

But she would never be able to live with herself knowing that her memories were the thing that killed him.

"I'm going to leave this place." She insisted, and Alec didn't doubt her for a second.

"Of course you are. Just not today." Alec guided Max back onto her cot until she was lying down again, "Rest up. No one's gonna go easy on you today, you need all the energy you can get."

Max looked at him with confusion as he sat down on the ground of her cell, eerily similar to when they first met, only now their roles were reversed. She didn't understand why he was being kind to her. He was all about helping himself, what was his angle? But she was tired, and he was right. If she started slipping now the others would never let her get back up.

"Thank you."

* * *

Logan cursed as his transmission failed, the words "Satellite Link Failed" flashing on the screen. Maintaining a trace-free video hack on a regular basis was hard enough without having to deal with the difficulties that came with using technology in a post-Pulse world.

He restarted his network, knowing that the hack to take down Manticore was minutes away from being broadcasted. He just had to be patient. He had waited months for this moment, he could wait another fifteen minutes.

* * *

 Max breathed in. Out. In. Out.

They were going to take her to psy-ops again today.

Everyone had their own way of doing things, though they had the same basic guidelines.

Her mind was like a library. All of her memories stored on a shelf.

Breathe in. Out.

She had a whole shelf for Logan, but that shelf expanded into other books. Jampony's phonebooth. Her pager. Crash.

She gathered all the books he was in and held them close to her.

Breathe in. Out.

Then she crushed them.

* * *

"The results of the DNA workup you ordered for 452." A man entering Renfro's office said, carrying a tablet with all of 452's information on it.

"Did you find anything to explain why there's no progeria?"

"Maybe you better take a look." The man said, handing her the tablet. Renfro couldn't believe what she was seeing. To think that she was right under their nose this whole time, "I've never seen anything like it. Just to be sure, I'll run another series as soon as 494 gets her back here."

Renfro nodded absently, her thoughts going a mile a minute, "Does anyone else know about this?"

"No, ma'am."

"Let's keep it that way." He begins to nod in confirmation when she pulls out one of her guns and shoots him. She would make up a story later as to why that was necessary, right now she had to make a call.

" _C'est Renfro. Je pense que j'ai trouvé ce qu'on cherchait. Non, personne ne le sait à Manticore. Ah oui...je te l'emmene."_

She smiled. Imagine the odds.

* * *

"Satellite link established. Press enter to transmit."

Logan smiled and hit the 'enter' button on his keyboard.

Finally, he would be able to finish what Max had started. He would be able to take down Manticore. 


	4. Chapter 4

They aren't taking her to psy-ops.

The first week after she joined basic training, she catalogued carefully in her memory every hall she had been in until she knew the layout of the facility like the back of her hand. Once she had met up with Joshua, she allowed him to teach her the ins and outs of the basement to replace that one nightmareish tour she had when she was a kid.

So she knew as soon as they turned left instead of right at the end of the corridor that they weren't going to psy-ops. Another left and she was being led away from control rooms, Renfro's office, any frequented locations. The only place they could go from here are other other cells and transport. But she was a flight risk, they wouldn't have her go on a mission already.

Eyes forward, soldier. She walks with her back straight and keeps her face trained in the blank Manticore stare expected of her.

An explosion rocks the building.

She moves into a crouch, her eyes scanning all around her to try and assess any threats. She is tased, a small dosage, just enough to encourage her to keep moving. One of the guards roughly grabs her by the elbow to drag her along. Physical contact. First mistake.

The other X series are crowding the doors to their cell, waiting to be let out. One of them asks who is attacking Manticore. The guards ignore them and continue walking.

It takes her half a second to realize what is happening. Plausible deniability. Renfro is kissing their transgenic asses goodbye.

Another explosion. This one closer. She smells smoke and burnt flesh.

One of the guards sticks a taser through one of the cells and an X6 who had his arm through the small window, trying to get their attention, falls back from the pain. Pissing her off. Second mistake.

Max uses the hand on her arm and spins, knocking the man into the other guard that tased the X6, grabbing his own taser in the process. There are only three other guards.

She doesn't slow down, she is all blurs and flips and kicks and one of their necks might've snapped but she does not care.

She yanks on the doors to the cells for about half a second before giving up, and runs as fast as she can to the nearest control room.

Another explosion.

Their real mistake happened weeks ago, when they took Zack's heart and saved her life.

* * *

 "You," A hand cradles her head, a woman thought to be the enemy smiles at her, "You're the one we've been looking for. Sandeman. Find Sandeman."

Joshua's Sandman.

No time for unraveling mysteries, the whole building is falling apart.

Freedom is so close.

* * *

She only has to knock out three X7's and fourteen guards before she makes it past the perimeter to the forest, and half of the guards were in the control room as she freed all of the others. Easy pickings.

She breathes in deep, and past the thick smell of burning  _everything_ is the sweet smell of freedom. Trees. Water. She looks behind her, less than a second, just enough time to smile at the burning building and let the warm feeling, the  _gloating_ feeling, roll through her.

She is running, miles passing underneath her feet, intent on going  _home_ until she realizes something is wrong and stops in her tracks.

She doesn't remember home.

Okay. So she made herself forget something, and that something included where she was living before Manticore recaptured her, probably for a good reason. Probably so they couldn't get it in psy-ops, whatever it was. Maybe one of her siblings had been staying with her, and knowing where she was staying would compromise their location. To her knowledge, she had only seen Zack in the last few years, because Zack was in Manticore. Renfrow had shown her his broken body, told her his heart beat on inside her.

Faces flashed behind her eyes. Ben. Tinga. Krit. Syl.

Ben. Tinga.  _Zack_. _  
_

Corpses.

Ben's face in Manticore. Smirking. Not Ben. Ben in the forest, looking up at her, past her towards the sky, dead in her arms.

Tinga suspended in water, eyes closed, skin a horrible gray color that made Max sick inside. She was too late.

Zack behind a glass wall. Barely recognizable from all the machines he was hooked up to but a small part of his face was visible, one eye showing through and looking at her.

_Fight them, Maxie. Promise me you'll fight them._

It wasn't safe for her to remember here. There still could be X7s waiting to catch her offguard.

She ran until she reached a road and followed it to a motel. Escape and evade tactics came back to her and she peeked through the windows of the rooms until she spotted a couple, the young female similar enough to her in size, both sleeping. It took less than five minutes for her to slide the glass window open, take the suitcase out, less than a minute for her to hop to the roof of the building and rummage through it for some plain clothes.

Avoid capture. Keep moving.

She spotted a bike. Perfect mode of transportation and just sitting there, waiting for her arrival. Well it was waiting there because it's owner was sleeping in the motel but that wasn't important.

She remembered a Ninja. Black. Her baby.

This one was red, old, but well kept enough to get her to civilization.

* * *

Logan breathed out, not realizing he had been holding his breath as the broadcast played over his computer. 

He had expecting some sense of peace, thinking that he would finally be able to start mourning Max, but he still felt like things were unfinished. That he was missing something. He could picture her face in their last moments, felt her go still in his arms, but it still felt like a dream.

Would he ever be satisfied?

* * *

It's almost too easy for him. He's had a bag packed underneath his cot, has had one for who knows how long (his memory isn't linear, too much time in psy-ops, just training and a handful of missions that he doesn't try and sort through because he doesn't want to know if he's had to forget,) filled with clothes and more cash than could fit in his wallet. Getting out of the cell is a little trickier, and he's halfway through finally figuring out the wiring on the cell door when it, and every cell door on his block, opens up at once. He doesn't bother talking to anyone around him, no one knows more than he does. The the only point in numbers is to lessen your chances of being shot, but he's always been of the opinion that sticking in numbers increases your chances of being shot _at._ So he does what he does best, and stays under the radar.

He changes behind a tree just before he reaches a small town just far away enough that anyone looking for strays won't bother. There's too many of them, and he knows the easy targets will be picked off first. The ones who follow protocol as if Manticore had been attacked. Law low, stay in the area, wait to be called back in.

He doesn't feel like waiting.

The dive bar he finds is filled with people who don't give a crap, spending what little money they have on alcohol that'll numb their senses to their depressing lives. He zeroes in on a girl that is all smiles and interested glances, focused all on him. There aren't that many attractive men here, most of them over the age of thirty and overweight, and Alec is aware of what he was bred to be. Seducer and killer all wrapped in a pretty package. And she is easy to read, taken by whatever he says, he doesn't even have to  _try_ to find a bed for the night, her room is open and waiting for him.

There is no mission.

He's not sure exactly what happened, why the guards turned on them when the explosions started.

There is no mission.

He knows that Manticore is gone, and what's left is not safe, not home, not protection.

There will never be another mission.

And he just has a feeling that it's all Max's fault.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so far it's just been loosely following the episodes and tweaking things to make up for Renfro not being able to rely on the virus she infects Max with. Max relied on Logan a lot for information that moved the plots of the episodes along, so from now on things are going to go a little differently from season 2.

She rides until the bike dies, because of course it was just like her luck to get the bike that had the broken gas meter. She considers the risks of siphoning gas out of cars from a nearby town, but with the way gas is treated rarer than gold, she would rather walk than risk the death sentence being caught would be. The sun is going to rise, she has around two hours of darkness still if her internal clock is still right (it's always right.) She should make it across a few state lines before she stops, the first time she escaped she went all the way to southern California and live by the warm water that was so different from the snow and icy water that stayed with her that night when her family was split up.

She shakes her head. It's different now, they are in chaos, there is no one alive that would actively be looking for  _her_. ~~Except the people she made herself forget.~~  She is in civvies, her hair has grown long enough to cover the barcode on her neck, she is a target but not a recognizable one. She has time to walk to a town, get a new ride, and get far, far away. Maybe the east coast this time. New York is supposed to be important, it'd be easy for her to disappear.

Okay. Ditch the motorcycle. Following the road is impractical now that she's on foot. If she goes north-east there is a small town (she half-remembers memorizing maps of Washington as a girl paints her toenails, the both of them sharing a motel bed. The populous areas had been divided into zones, the maps pre-pulse and unable to accurately reflect how the chaos that tightly packed panicking humans created would change city lines, but the rural areas were fenced up and coveted. The small town should still be there, and if not it's only about an hour from where she knows in her gut is a Seattle she should be familiar with.)

She looks to the sky so that she can get her bearings, and there is a light blinking amongst the stars.

_Regroup_

_Echo Golf 427952_

She swears aloud to no one in particular. She knew that the facility being gone was a small victor, that even though the Manticore she knew was gone there were still others, higher ups, the people Renfro answered to. She was created by a shady government organization, she knows how this works, that they didn't have all their eggs in that basket. Knows that they're probably  _freaking out_ because there are hundreds of transgenics out there now, and no one to control them. Plausible deniability will go right out the window if someone gets an eyeful of Joshua or the others from the basement.

She knows better than to trust the beacon, obviously a ruse, but she also knew better than to trust Manticore in the first place. All of the others lived, breathed, and crapped Manticore loyalty. Alec knew the human guards by name, sold them  _drugs,_ he probably trusted them with his life, would he have gotten out before they got him? Would he go back to them, this trap, seeking out the security that being a Manticore drone would provide him?

She shook her head. Even if one person trusted that beacon, that was one person too many. She had to operate under the assumption that only she knew what Manticore was really up to, and in order to protect the others she had to disrupt that signal.

Without ~~her~~  a bike, if she ran without stopping, she could make it to the coordinates by noon tomorrow. Or, well, today since the sun was about to rise.

If she stole another bike, she could make it there even quicker.

* * *

 494 was done with this transgenic  _bullshit._

Here he was, trying to stay under the radar, trying to figure out what to do after being laid off in the most  _rude_ way possible (but it was Manticore, he knew how it was, what was he supposed to expect?) and those damn  _kids_ were just so damn  _stupid_.

First they compromise the motel he was staying at by stealing food like bumbling idiots and not stealthy genetically-enhanced super soldiers. Then they refused to listen to his older, wiser words of caution. He had  _warned_ them that Manticore had turned on them, that it was a trap, but they were too busy being  _idiots._

And then,  _and fricking then,_ they had come running back to the barn, tails between their legs, loud and clumsy and  _were they really X-series because ~~Alec~~ 494 had never been so weak_  and of course bringing Max along with them. Because he thought that he was done with his breeding partner, but of course he wasn't going to be that lucky. Because those kids attracted trouble, and Max was a pretty package filled to the brim with trouble.

But he helps with the bullet wound in the kid's leg, sticks around out of some curiosity and sense of what--obligation? Duty? Loyalty? He'd get rid of those soon enough. He wonders if being assigned as her breeding partner was a way for their superiors to punish him, or if it really was just a bizarre twist of fate. Like seeing her again not 24 hours after Manticore burned down and anyone with a lick of sense scattered to the wind. He didn't believe in coincidence, only believed in variables and cold hard fact, but this was getting to be ridiculous. _  
_

She names the younger transgenics and he almost thinks it's  _cute,_ like she's creating a pack and aren't felines based on matriarchs? He shakes his head and throws a pork rind at the X7 hovering by the window. None of this is his problem. He is content being above all of this sentimental team building, ready to watch when it all turns to crap.

"Partner." He greets, quirking the side of his mouth into a flirtatious grin as she approaches him. He pauses in flicking the hydrogenated imitation pork product at the X7.

"Dick."

His smile drops, even though he sees that her face is smiling at him,  _teasing._

"Looking good out of the Manticore grays." He looks her up and down, still on a high from how easy it was to get the human girls eating out of his hands last night, "Maybe if regulation was more leather and less military, the breeding program would've gone a lot smoother."

"As if." She scoffed, folding her arms. He wondered if she knew that even though folding arms over your chest was supposed to be a defensive move, all it did was push up her chest. They didn't have low-crop shirts at Manticore either, and the quirked eyebrow and almost leer that he gave her chest was worth the punch on the shoulder he got for it.

"Guess it doesn't matter though, you managed to complete the mission after all."

"Sorry?"

"You and the kids." He nodded to the younger X series scattered across the barn, all engrossed in their various duties, and gave her a smirk, "You got a whole flock now, and we didn't even have to copulate. Sure they should call you Max? Mom seems more fitting."

"Cute." She said dryly, implying that she did not find his behavior cute at all. She grimaces for a second, and he amuses himself imagining all of the fears running through her head at the idea of motherhood.

He shrugs and offers her the pork rinds.

She wrinkles her nose but eats one anyway.

Alec supposed she was alright, despite being complete trouble.

* * *

 "It's Lydecker."

"How did you get this number?"

"It doesn't matter."

"What does?"

"Max."

"... Max is dead."

"Wrong. I need you to find her for me, warn her she's not safe."

"What? Why? How do you know she's alive?"

"Because I'm not the only one looking for her. I'll be in touch."

"Wait--"  _Click._ "Goddammit."

Max was alive.

Max was alive and Manticore was gone and she wasn't with him.

Was she there when Manticore burned down?

Was she in hiding?  _Why wasn't she hiding with him he could protect her._

This changed everything.

* * *

"Well when the going gets cute, the tough get going." Alec has lingered with them enough already, snacking on pork rinds and annoying Max and ignoring the others unless he says something to cut them down. Max is self-appointed den mother and protector, and he is fine on his own, better and faster this way. He does fine without them, and with Max they don't need him either.

"You're leaving?" Max asks, rushing up to him and looking betrayed as if she expected something from him.

"Afraid so." Alec shrugs, and Max's face is crumpling. Why is it doing that.

"I thought they taught us never to abandon your unit." Max's face is shutting down just like that first day when she realized he wasn't her brother, just another X5, just another automaton, and she doesn't get to look at him like that. _  
_

He looks at the group of kids gathered behind her and he is not going to be a part of this. This happy feel-good ragtag team of X's from all walks of life, coming together and what, forming their own unit? Him, what, standing in the background and deferring to her, playing the role of her smart alec? He huffs out a laugh and makes it sound as mean as he can make it.

"There is no Manticore. And there sure as hell aren't  _units_ anymore. You wanna delude yourself, that's not my problem."

Stunned silence.

Good.

He's out of here.

Except how he's not, and by nightfall he's breaking Max out of the cage that the suits had her set up in, (why didn't they just kill her instead of locking her and the other one up like an animal? He'd rather not question a good thing, but X series were trained to be tactical geniuses as well and it doesn't add up.)

They buy a room, since the barn is compromised, and Max and Alec pretend to be honeymooners who got lost, and sneak the kids in after they get their room key. Manticore doesn't look for runaway military experiments in motels. There's only one bed, so they let Bullet and the kid take it, though Bullet's wound is already mostly healed. They use towels to make mattresses and pillows and split the blankets up amongst them, and Max's heart is worn on her face as she looks at the kids sleeping as she watches over them from her corner of the room that lets her have eyes on all the exits.

Alec is sprawled on the floor beside her, though she's in a crouch ready to pounce at any second.

"So." She says under her breath, watching as Bugler curls up in his sleep to press his face into Bullet's arm.

"So." Alec replies, trying not to watch anything but the exits. There's a squirrel climbing a tree outside despite how late it is. Weren't squirrels day creatures? He didn't really know anything about animals.

"Not your unit, not your problem?" She is probably smiling at him, but he refuses to look up at her.

"Nope."

"But you came back and saved the day."

"Yup." He grits out, not liking where this is going. He is not her smart alec, he is not Manticore's asset, he is his own and he is not going to go along with her expectations of him.

"And you haven't run off to wherever yet."

"Nope."

She sighs at the one word answers he's giving, but it's not disappointed or annoyed or anything. If anything, she's  _happy_ and he doesn't know what to do with that.

"You know what you're gonna do now?"

"Soul searching." He says deadpan, putting an arm over his face as if that would drown her out, "And you? Gonna track down that boyfriend that Manticore was after?"

He can  _hear_ her agitation from beside him, and he gives a long-suffering sigh.

"Okay, spill. What's got you all worked up after we played hero and saved the day?"

 "I... I made myself forget some things. Some people. I don't know how many people, but maybe a year is gone."

"Huh. Never heard of that much going missing, and voluntarily too. Usually psy-ops has to drag it out of your head."

"Whatever I got rid of, I was thorough about it. Probably got rid of anything that could trigger me remembering what they wanted. All I know is that I was in Seattle, but not who I was with and why. I think my siblings were there at some point. I haven't seen them since Manticore, but I can remember what most of them look like grown up." She shudders, "I know it's not all happy endings, though. They're hurt or worse."

"Well you must've met up with my twin when he was on his homicidal rampage. You recognized me."

"Ben? He didn't--" She frowned, "I made myself forget, but he wouldn't do that."

"Don't you remember when we first met? You talked about him then, ' _It was this place that got to him.'_ " He raises the tone of his voice to try and imitate her, "You seriously made yourself forget our conversation too?"

"No, wait." She frowns and rubs her forehead, no longer speaking to him but using him as a sounding board, "He was doing it for the Blue Lady. Trying to make her strong enough to fight the anomalies. I found him at the high place and--" She cut herself off, "I must have a contact. There are police records, someone who got me into a mortuary. Tried to have me stop him, like he was someone to  _stop_ and not to  _help._ He was all twisted up and I was so mad that the only people who could understand were cut off from him. That I hadn't been there for him when he needed me, and I hated Manticore for twisting Ben up that he thought he had to hurt people."

Alec grew cold, imagining someone with his face, his DNA,  _identical to him in every way,_ snapping and becoming some deranged serial killer outside of Manticore. He was outside Manticore now, didn't have a choice about it, and Max needed to stop talking about his crazy twin _right now._ _  
_

"Listen, all your vague recollections of the memories you made yourself forget are fascinating, really, but tomorrow's a big day and I've got to get some shut eye. Maybe some sleep would do you good, too."

"I don't sleep much."

"A little too much shark in you?"

She looked at how quick he settled onto the floor, his voice slurring slightly, "They put a little too much sloth in you?"

"Them's fighting words, Maxie." Already he is halfway to sleep.

"Don't call me that."

"I touch a nerve there?" Maxie was going to be his preferred nickname from now on.

"You didn't touch anything."

He lifts his arm from his face to look up at where she is perched beside him and smirks.

"Not yet."

"Want me to remind you what happened the last time you tried to get touchy with me?"

Alec raises his eyebrows and looks away, "Have it your way. Just trying to make conversation."

"They teach you to be a perv in common verbal usage?"

"Nope, that's just one of my natural talents."

"I'm sure it must work on all the breeding partners."

"If it ever does, you'll be the first to know." He turns away from her, signifying the end of the conversation, cause of course he has to have the last word.

What a dick.


End file.
